Administration for many areas of federal legislative authority is constitutionally assigned to the governments of the units.
Germany: the federation cannot create its own federal agencies to be sent to the states, although the federal government exercises an oversight to ensure that the states exercise federal laws in accordance with the law and the Bundesrat can decide as to whether a state has violated the federal law or not and an appeal can be lodged against such decisions before the Federal Constitutional Court.
Division of Executive Power and Intergovernmental Relations Con’d
The Basic Law also provides for situations where the states enforce federal laws as agents of the federation and subject to binding federal instruction.
When the states do so as agents of the federation, the federal government can take measures to ensure that the states execute federal laws faithfully. State authorities may be subject to strict instructions from highest federal authorities.
Federal administrative structures exist only in those limited areas where the Basic Law expressly provides for direct federal administration.
Federal administrative power is more the exception than the rule. And to the extent that there are direct federal agencies, there is dual federalism of some kind but its scope is very limited and is not the defining element of the German federation.
Division of Executive Power and Intergovernmental Relations Con’d
In general, Switzerland like Germany falls into the category that federal government is for the most part responsible for law-making while the states are for administering it.
The distribution of executive power in India also shows some similarity to the German and Swiss federations, although the arrangement has its own peculiar features.
Division of Executive Power and Intergovernmental Relations Con’d
